Tango is a passion, drive, magic that occurs between a man and a woman during an old and very beautiful dance. But where did it come from and why did it get such a name?
To plunge into the fascinating world of secrets and emotions, as well as to understand in detail the origin and meaning of the word "tango", this article will help.
Meaning of the word
Sergei Ivanovich Ozhegov in his dictionary states that tango is, firstly, a special kind of pair ballroom dance, and, secondly, the music that accompanies it "pa" and movement. In the encyclopedic dictionary, the word "tango" is defined as a modern sliding dance that has various forms.
The emphasis in the word “tango” falls on the first syllable, and therefore the word should be pronounced as “tango”, and in no case “tango”! Remember this so as not to seem illiterate or ignorant.
His origin
This word appeared much earlier than the famous and popular dance today. However, to tell for sure where historians and linguists did not really come from, they only suggest a history of the origin of amazing movements and their names.
It is only known that the term "tango" in Argentina in the 18th-19th centuries was used to refer to gatherings that were often arranged by visiting migrants from Africa (by the way, the word is most likely also from the Nigerian language), on which they danced and played drums having a name similar to dance.
Tango - he or it?
This word is clearly not Russian, and therefore, at first glance it is impossible for Russians to determine how to speak about this direction correctly and correctly: “he” or “it”.
Of course, in the Russian language there are many foreign words, the gender of which is not in doubt. For example, the words " devaluation " or "tolerance" : nouns in the nominative case, singular, feminine. Or “ entourage ”, “ experiment”, “renaissance” : also the initial form of the noun, mentioning which, the pronoun “he” should be used, since the word refers to the masculine gender of the singular.
The word "tango" in this regard is covered in secrets and riddles. After all, even knowing its significance, it is difficult to say to which genus it belongs.
Similar “doubtful” words in Russian speech
Of course, to determine the generic feature of the word "tango" is quite difficult. Indeed, in this sense it is very similar to the morning invigorating drink, known to almost everyone. Savvy people probably already guessed that we are talking about coffee. And also about how many difficulties with the correct pronunciation of this word arise in most Russians.
Imagine the situation: you have made a wonderful drink and offer it to your loved ones, what do you say by inviting them to the table? “ Join, the coffee turned out to be incredibly tasty!” or “ Join, the coffee turned out to be incredibly tasty!”.
Middle gender or male? “My” or “mine”, how right ? Is the pronoun "he" or "it" ? So you will not immediately determine. Yes, and linguists are constantly confused, without finally deciding which genus the word "coffee" refers to. It used to be average, now, it seems, they agreed that it was male. But what will happen tomorrow remains a mystery.
How not to get into a trap when talking about tango?
This word is exactly the same story as with "coffee." However, many people, when they use the word "coffee", "tango" and the like in conversation, say: "Tango is a dance ... Since 2009, it has been protected by UNESCO ..." or "Tango is the direction of ballroom dancing ... It says in the language of love and passion. "
Artists resort to an interesting trick, building a sentence with the word "tango" in such a way as to replace it with another word or definition, the genus of which is beyond doubt.
This simple method can also be applied to the word "coffee", replacing it, for example, with the word "drink" or some other.
What kind of word is tango?
In order to determine the gender of the selected word, conduct its morphological analysis.
This term is probably familiar to you from school. In the Russian language lessons, when it was required to parse a word relative to which part of the speech it belongs to and what attributes it possesses, the teacher suggested a morphological analysis. Which just allowed to reveal the features of a particular word.
Morphological analysis of the word:
"What? Tango".
A noun denoting an inanimate object.
"What? What? Why? What? Than? - Tango. About what? “About tango.”
In cases it does not incline and does not change its form.
Whose tango? It is mine! ”
Neuter gender.
Based on the above morphological analysis, as well as from the definition given in the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, this word should be used exclusively in the form of a neuter gender, saying “it”.
How did the dance direction begin?
Tango is a mysterious and slightly mystical dance. The movements of partners in it are so rich, vibrant. And the rhythms are so exciting, passionate that you can endlessly admire the beauty of this dance. After all, he is like a volcano, hot and unrestrained. Watching the movements of partners each time you discover something new.
Tango is a struggle, but romantic and passionate. To master the movements of this dance is now quite simple, just have the desire to master the skill of tango to perfection.
But at that moment, when the dance trend had just begun its development, this art was not only not taught, but on the contrary, tried to suppress it by all means. Tango "flourished" in the streets, in the poor neighborhoods of Argentina.
Refugees from Italy, Spain, Andalusia, Buenos Aires, the lower strata of Argentines and representatives of other countries took an active part in the “yard” festivities. Therefore, tango is an emotional, sensual dance of people who are at the very bottom and they have nothing more to lose. Life is disappointment, bitterness and pain, and love hopes are shattered. But they continue to live and by all means strive to receive maximum pleasure, albeit in the most disgusting position.
Tango - brothel dance
Passionate and rather sexy dance among the representatives of the nobility of a rather puritanical nineteenth century was considered impudent, overly frank, and, therefore, indecent. High society did not approve of it, called it shameful, giving only one definition for the word "tango" - the dance of fallen, deserted people.
Nevertheless, this absolutely did not prevent very many representatives of the “Belorusskie” from going to the so-called hot places every evening. Where they could admire the eroticism of the magic movements of this dance.
High society has made every effort to at least limit, if not completely eradicate the dance, that it was so loved by the lower classes and intelligent visitors to dating houses. Only all attempts were in vain, and the tango, having significantly moderated its sexuality and frankness, nevertheless got to the “decent” quarters.
Tango - a visiting card of Argentina
The Argentine intelligentsia was never able to accept this dance direction as a “worthy” dance. She continued to interfere in every way with his development, to despise and humiliate the people performing him. But fans of tango, meanwhile, also did not concede their positions. This continued until the First World War.
Just the day before, the “dance of passion" burst into Europe with lightning speed. London, Madrid, Rome ... The inhabitants of these cities, unlike the Argentines, were not so prone to prejudice. And not only watched with great enthusiasm the tango performers, but also sought to learn a new direction, become professionals, virtuosos.
And when the dance reached Paris, whose inhabitants exalted it to the highest level with their admiring exclamations, the Argentines surrendered. And, having replayed everything in a new way, they made the dance their highlight, fetish and special feature.
If you were looking for the answer in which country the tango dance appeared, you should know that it is beautiful Argentina. And in the 30-50s of the twentieth century, he became the most popular. Some experts even argue that it is precisely this period of time that accounts for the “golden” age of this dance direction.
No matter how the intelligentsia sought to interrupt the spread of this enchanting dance, nothing came of it. And this is wonderful! Indeed, otherwise it would be impossible now to admire the amazing direction of the pair ballroom dance called tango. Modern people simply would not know what it is, and therefore they would not line up for training courses.
It is difficult to say how all the inhabitants of the planet would react to this, but surely for many, life would become less vibrant and sensual if this dance suddenly disappeared somewhere. The fact is that it is human nature to strive for beauty. And in difficult times, he just needs to somehow express his emotions.
So masterpieces of painting, poetry, music are born. So was born the dance of crazy, tragic and passionate love.